Short on Words But Not on Actions
by Havah Kinny
Summary: Dwayne realized the second he walked into his school that this year would be different, but he did not expect to catch the eye of the new transfer student. Barely speaking, Dwayne turns again to solitude, but finds it may not be the answer this time. M/M.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N This chapter is short – really just a short prologue, the next chapters will be longer, I promise.**_

Dwayne Iverson did not speak to anyone – he didn't even look at anyone unless he absolutely had to or unless he looked up in the hallway by mistake and accidentally managed to make eye contact with someone. Some people thought that Dwayne was crazy – that he was a classic example of a faux angst ridden teen desperate to get a dose of an over diagnosed anti-depressant. Others thought that he was holier than thou, that he fancied himself above everyone else, and that was the reason that he kept to himself.

It was, however, safe to say that no one knew Dwayne. None of his classmates knew that his last name matched NO ONE in his family, that at the high point, six people lived in their house and that he was only directly related to three of them. No one knew that his father lived in Florida and not Albuquerque, that he had kept silent as a pledge to himself to be the strongest that he could be. No one knew that the only person he truly loved was his little half sister, Olive – hell, no one even knew that she was only his half sister and not his full sister, or that she was the only reason he was still living in the small house that he hated so much.

One thing about Dwayne, however, was that everyone noticed him. Even in his large high school, the boy stood out. He had stopped speaking near the beginning of his Freshman year and he was always, always alone. Also, he had black hair that, due to constant re-dyeing, never faded away to his natural brown. Due to this school-wide knowledge of the odd boy, it took little time for the word to spread that, after the trip to California, he was speaking again.

When Dwayne walked into the school on the first day of his Sophomore year, he heard whispers almost right away. However, just as he had the year before, Dwayne ignored the words, hitching his backpack up as headed for his English class.

As was the norm for him, Dwayne took a seat in the back of the room, attempting to maintain maximum invisibility – little did he know that, just by walking into the classroom that day, he had attracted more attention than he ever could have anticipated.

"Who is that?" A blond boy turned, watching as Dwayne came in before leaning towards the desk of the boy sitting next to him.

"Oh, that's Dwayne Iverson." Carl Jones shrugged as he answered the question posed to him. "You don't need to know him – trust me." Carl shook his head. "I know that you just moved here, so let me be the first to tell you – Dwayne doesn't know how to be around people. He's an elitist, things he's better than everyone else. He doesn't talk to anyone, he doesn't even acknowledge anyone's existence."

"Oh." The blond boy nodded. "He doesn't look so bad, though."

"Trust me, Declan, you don't want to get to him; and even if you did, he wouldn't let you, it would be a shocking waste of time to even try." Carl scoffed at the very idea. "He probably wouldn't even look at you, he would just push past you as though you weren't even there."

"Wow." Declan let out a low whistle. "He's THAT bad?"

"Oh yeah." Carl nodded. "He's just…not like everyone else."

"I know." Declan nodded, biting his lip slightly as he turned to sneak another quick look at Dwayne. "I can tell."


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N - Hey, I'm SO sorry about the slow updating. I had a lot this week - 3 papers, 2 exams, oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up, so the updates will probably still be slow...but I'm not dropping the story.

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**_

One week passed and Dwayne found that he still held just as much resentment towards both school and his peers as he had the year before. Last year, people had whispered about Dwayne's silence, and now that he was speaking again, people were whispering about that. He went through his classes, doing his work, pretending that he didn't care, and really, he didn't, at least not in the way that most people would have. He didn't care that people didn't like him, but it annoyed him that they wouldn't let him be invisible.

Dwayne had fallen into a straight routine – he would wake at 6:00 every morning, take a shower, get ready and eat breakfast. At 7:00, he would leave the house and begin his walk to school. He would arrive at 7:25, leaving himself five minutes to get to his first class before the bell rang. He would take lunch alone in the library at noon before going back to class until 2:30 when school let out. Dwayne left the building at roughly 2:35, after stopping at his locker, and walked home, arriving back at his house no later than 3:00.

His daily routine was not only perfectly regimented, but it was a solo routing, designed to him through the day without having to communicate with anyone. As a result of this, Dwayne was shocked on Monday when, as he left the school to walk home, someone fell into step with him. Dwayne looked over at his companion, taking note of the boy walking with him. He was almost as tall as Dwayne with green eyes, fairly short brown hair and pale skin.

Neither boy said anything as they walked, though the rhythm of their footsteps was in nearly perfect time. By nature, Dwayne walked quickly, bit regardless, his companion had him matched stride for stride.

After his regular, brisk, 25 minute walk, Dwayne split off from the other boy without so much as a parting word or action to acknowledge the fact that his stretch of the walk was over. Without hesitating, even for an instant, the other boy continued on, walking towards home as Dwayne went his own way. Dwayne entered his house, heading back to his room, wondering why that boy – the one he had now placed as the blond in his English class, had joined him in his daily walk.

What surprised Dwayne even more was that the next day, the boy joined him again, appearing at Dwayne's side so fluidly that it was as though it was unintentional, as though it were a coincidence, that both boys simply happened to be heading in the same direction, but Dwayne was almost certain that the other boy had intended to fall into step beside him.

Over the next two weeks, the blond boy walked in perfect stride with Dwayne every day. Neither uttered a word, and they rarely even glanced at each other, yet the presence of another person was oddly comforting and Dwayne found himself depending on the silent companionship. Even after he had broken his vow of silence, he was not great with words, thus he was thankful for the speechless interaction.

On that Friday, just before Dwayne broke off from the other boy, he looked at the blond, biting his lip. "Um," he whispered. "I leave the house at seven." The other boy just nodded and continued to walk. Dwayne split off shortly after that, entirely unconvinced that his words meant anything to the other boy.

Sure enough, however, on Monday morning, just as Dwayne was leaving his house, the other boy was walking past it. Dwayne fell into perfect step with him, shocked that neither of them had to stop or adjust their pace to walk side by side. About halfway to school, Dwayne took a deep breath before turning to the other boy.

"Dwayne." He said the word quietly, his own hermit-esque way of introducing himself to the boy.

"Declan." The other boy smiled as he too introduced himself with no more than his first name. The boys fell back into their silent step, hearing only their footsteps as they made their way to the building. They walked to their first class together, and while Dwayne took his normal seat in the back, Declan gave up his seat near the front to sit next to the black-haired boy.

The seat next to Dwayne was always empty and as other students filed into the classroom, Dwayne knew that they were talking about the boy seated next to him. It was clear that this was going to be on the gossip charts for the day. Dwayne had no idea why so many people cared what he did when he had given them no reason to. Perhaps it was the joy of gossiping about someone who absolutely no one liked.

No one except for the new kid, Declan Forrester.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been one month. One month of walking to and from school together, one month of sitting next to each other in English class, one month of a near silent friendship between Dwayne and Declan. It was almost Halloween and Declan, who, while friends with Dwayne, had also managed to make a name for himself with some of the other groups, earning himself invitations to several parties.

"Dwayne?" Declan bit his lip, taking a risk as he spoke to Dwayne on the walk home one Friday. Dwayne turned his head, looking at Declan curiously, but saying nothing. "Um, I got invited to Bobby Kessler's Halloween party tomorrow night and I was thinking about going, but…I mean, would you be interested in going?"

"I don't go to parties." Dwayne shook his head. "Thanks, though." He wasn't really sure how to react. No one had invited Dwayne to a party in a long, long time, not since grade school when parents made the guest lists anyways.

"Oh." Declan nodded. "It's just, I don't know Bobby that well and I don't really know the people that he hangs around with all that well, I just thought it might be nice if there were someone there that…that I knew."

"Wait." Dwayne frowned as he stopped walking. "You think that you know me?"

"Well no, I mean…" Declan sighed, turning to face Dwayne. "I mean I don't know anything about you except for what people at school say about you, and even then, I don't believe half of the shit that comes out of their mouth, but…I'd like to get to know you."

"You see, that's where you've gone wrong." Dwayne shook his head, adjusting the straps on his backpack. "You don't want to get to know me. No one wants to get to know me." Dwayne began walking again, ignoring Declan as he chased after him.

"Dwayne!" Declan sighed. "If you change your mind, the party's tomorrow night, Bobby's house, starts at 10. It's a costume party." Declan didn't pursue Dwayne any further as the boy split off to his house and when Dwayne slammed the front door, no one was surprised. He went back to his room, tossed his backpack to the ground and flopped, facedown, onto his bed.

Things weren't going the way that they were supposed to. Dwayne wasn't supposed to have friends, he wasn't supposed to have anyone to ask him to parties. He was supposed to the kid who no one knew anything about the kid who, at graduation, when his name was called, everyone whispered to their neighbor, trying to figure out who the hell Dwayne Iverson was. He wasn't supposed to be the kid who went to Halloween parties and he definitely wasn't supposed to be the kid who let blond transfer students get to him.

After almost three hours, Dwayne rolled off of his bed and exited his room. He knocked on the door to Olive's room, leaning against the wall as he waited for his younger half sister to open the door to her messy chamber.

"Dwayne!" She smiled. "Come in."

"Hey, Olive?" He sat down on the edge of her bed. "I need some help?"

"With what?" Olive looked at him, tilting her head to the side in a very professional matter.

"I need a Halloween costume."

"OH!" Olive grinned, clapping here hands with glee as she went to her dress up box.

Dwayne spent almost an hour with Olive going through the house, looking for the prefect costume. After going through Olive's dress up box, the candy drawer and a few boxes in the basement, they managed to locate a hat with ear flaps, a licorice pipe, and an awful tweed cape.

"You get to be Sherlock Holmes." Olive grinned as she presented Dwayne with the items. "Now I know I have fake moustaches around here somewhere…" Olive wrinkled her nose as she went to her accessories drawer. "Ah ha!" She grinned, holding up the package of seven fake moustaches. "Here ya go." She shoved them at Dwayne. "Perfect."

"Thanks Olive." Dwayne smiled as he took the items back to his room, tucking them away for the next day.

***

"Hey, where are you going?" Richard raised an eyebrow as he saw Dwayne head for the door in costume.

"Party." Dwayne shrugged, turning and leaving. He had informed his mother that he would be going, so he did not feel the need to explain himself to his stepfather. He walked the half mile to Bobby Kessler's house, almost turning back several times. When he got to the party, it was just past ten, and he wasn't sure what to do. He immediately headed for the corner, wondering just how bad of an idea it was to come here.

"Whoa, you came!" Dwayne looked up, jumping back slightly as Declan, dressed as Indiana Jones, walked up to him.

"Yeah, well, my sister wanted to put together a costume for me, so I guess I needed a place to wear it." Dwayne shrugged, feeling that this was, indeed, an awful idea as he looked awkwardly at Declan.

"Well you look good." He smiled. "Tell your sister thanks for me."

"I'll be sure to do that." Dwayne gulped, looking down at his beat up sneakers. "You know, you look cool too, very, um…ok, I have no idea who you are."

"Wait, you're kidding me, right?" Declan's eyes widened as he looked at Dwayne.

"No…" Dwayne trailed off. "Is this something that I should know?"

"Indiana Jones?" Declan let out a snort of laughter.

"Oh, heard of him, yeah." Dwayne couldn't stop the burning feeling that crept up behind his neck, to his ears, and he had the sudden urge to pull down the earflaps to his hat to hide his blush.

"You've never seen an Indiana Jones film?" Declan looked at Dwayne skeptically.

"No." Dwayne shrugged. "I don't watch a lot of movies."

"Oh." Declan nodded. "Um, well if you like, sometime you could come over to my place and we could, you know, maybe watch one together?"

"I guess so." Dwayne frowned as he spoke, the words leaving his mouth automatically, before he had even thought about them.

"Alright, well maybe tomorrow if you like, or-" Declan found himself cut off as Dwayne leaned up, placing a soft kiss to the boy's lips. Declan closed his eyes, kissing the other boy back for a split second. "What the…" Declan trailed off, rooted to the spot as Dwayne pushed him away.

"I have to go." Dwayne turned, running form the party without so much as another word.


	4. Chapter 4

"Dwayne, wait!" Declan tore after Dwayne, chasing him into the night. It took Declan three blocks to catch up with Dwayne, and when he did, he grabbed the boy's wrist, pulling him to a stop. "Don't just run away from me like that!" Declan tightened his grip on Dwayne's arm as Dwayne tried to pull away.

"Let go!" Dwayne frowned, struggling against the blond's grip.

"Not until you answer a couple of questions." Declan shook his head, his grip growing still tighter as he attempted to prove to Dwayne that he would, in fact, win this power struggle no matter what.

"Fine." Dwayne sighed after a couple of minutes, giving up the power struggle. "What?"

"Well first off, the obvious." Declan maintained his hold on Dwayne as he looked at the boy. "Why did you kiss me?"

"Please." Dwayne gulped. "Just let go, alright? And don't tell anyone, I don't want everyone looking at me any more frequently than they already do, alright?"

"I won't tell anyone." Declan shook his head. "But I still want my answer."

"Your answer?" Dwayne looked down, trying to keep from panicking. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, he had never kissed anyone, and he had no idea how to handle his own actions at that particular moment. "I kissed you because…because I wanted to."

"Alright." Declan nodded, smiling slightly at Dwayne's confession. He had known he was getting through to Dwayne slowly as they had been walking to and from school together, but he had not been expecting anything like this – after all, he had been 90 percent sure that Dwayne was straight…if he was anything at all. "Now why you ran away."

"I ran away because I kissed you!" Dwayne sighed. "I mean why the fuck wouldn't I run away?"

"Oh, maybe because I was kissing you back?" Declan rolled his eyes. "Dwayne, if you want to kiss me, you go ahead and fucking kiss me, alright? I've been trying to get you to notice me since the first day of school."

"Y-you have?" Dwayne looked up, his eyes displaying clear shock and confusions as he looked at Declan.

"Yes!" Declan nodded emphatically. "Why do you think I walked with you? Why do you think I stopped taking rides to school with my mom? I wanted to walk with you, Dwayne, so that I could get to know you because I really, really wanted to even though absolutely everyone told me that it was useless."

"Well normally they wouldn't have been wrong." Dwayne sighed. The things that people had told Declan, most of them were true. He didn't like to let people in and he definitely didn't make it easy. In his defense, however, very few people had actually tried to get to know Dwayne in the way that Declan had. And Declan had been the one who had succeeded.

"But they were," Declan pressed. "You're sick of being all by yourself, aren't you? You're tired of spending all of your time alone in the back of a classroom, sitting in the library at lunch. You're tired of being the only person in your life."

"No, I'm not." Dwayne frowned, beginning to get defensive. "I'm fucking fine on my own." He yanked his arm away from Declan's loosening grip. "Who do you think you are? Coming into my life, telling me what I need, what I am? I'm just fine all by myself, alright? I don't need you, I don't need anyone." Dwayne ripped off the hat he had been wearing, stuffing it into his pocket. "I don't need you telling me who I am."

"Oh, that's mature." Declan laughed. "You think that you're fine by yourself? Everybody hates you, Dwayne, everybody. You can't go through a life like that, with no one on your side? That's ridiculous! You hide behind your neo-nazi bullshit, but really, you're just a boy who's afraid of coming out of his shell."

"You have NO idea who I am!" Dwayne shook his head. "No idea at all. I know that people hate me. They hate me because I'm different, they hate me because I've got black hair, because I read Nietzsche and work my ass off to achieve my goals."

"No, Dwayne, you're wrong." Declan sighed. "They hate you because they think that you think you're better than everyone else, and you know what? They have a point! You isolated yourself, Dwayne, no one pushed you into the corner and made a sport of gawking and teasing you. You think anyone would give a shit that you dye your hair black if you shot people a smile every now and then?" Declan let out a dry, humorless laugh. "The box you're in you've created all by yourself. You've labeled yourself and you're fucking stupid if you can't see that."

"If I'm so awful, why the hell would you want to get to know me?" Dwayne shot back.

"Because I thought you'd be different deeper down." Declan threw his hands up in the air. "I thought that there would be a part of you that would come out if I got close to you, a part of you on the inside that matched the beauty you've got on the outside." Declan paused, taking a deep breath. "You're the walking, talking meaning of the phrase 'beauty is only skin deep.'"

"What?" Dwayne froze. "Beauty? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You, Dwayne!" Declan let out an exasperated sigh. "You're fucking gorgeous, that's what caught my attention initially – you're sexy as hell, but in a different way from everyone else and I liked that. Just goes to show how fucking stupid I am." Declan muttered the last words, turning away from Dwayne, beginning to walk back in the direction of the party.

Dwayne watched Declan in shock for about six seconds before catching the fabric on the boy's shirt, pulling back around and pressing his lips against Declan's. Once he had the boy, Dwayne let go of the shirt, wrapping his arms around Declan's waist, pulling him closer as the kiss grew more aggressive, more desperate. The second Declan's hands began to tangle through Dwayne's hair, however, Dwayne pulled away again.

"What?" Declan looked at Dwayne, trying to read the confused expression on the boy's face. "What's wrong?"

"I can't do this." Dwayne pushed Declan off of him, turning and walking briskly towards his house again.

"Oh, now that's just not ok." Declan chased Dwayne a second time, jogging in front of the boy, blocking the sidewalk ahead. "You can't keep doing that, Dwayne, just kissing me and running off." Declan reached up, placing his hand on the center of Dwayne's chest. "What's so hard about admitting that you like me?"

"I just…" Dwayne gulped, unable to make eye contact with Declan. "I can't let you in."

"Why not?" Declan slowly moved closer to Dwayne, his arms moving around Dwayne's neck as he tried to draw Dwayne's eye contact to his. "What's so bad about letting someone who cares about you into your life?"

"Because…I don't know how." Dwayne sighed. "I don't have friends, I don't let people in." He paused, biting down on his lower lip. "I don't know how to care about anyone but myself and my sister."

"Maybe it's time to learn." Declan placed on of his hands on Dwayne's cheek.

"Maybe it is." Dwayne nodded, leaning down, placing a soft kiss to Declan's cheek.

"Come on." Declan moved away, taking Dwayne's hand as he stood by his side. "I'll walk you home."


	5. Chapter 5

When Dwayne woke up the next morning, he wasn't sure that the events of the previous night had been real. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, going through things in his mind to make sure that he hadn't been dreaming. After several minutes of deliberation, he came to the conclusion that everything that had happened was real. He had kissed Declan at the party, then run away, only to have a massive fight with him in the middle of the street followed by another kiss and a short, but sweet conversation.

As it sunk in that Dwayne had finally started to let someone in, he began to panic. He didn't like the idea of letting someone in. He had been guarded for a reason, guarded because every person that he had ever let in had hurt him, aside from Olive, and she was too young to hurt him, she would never do something like that, not to him. If he let Declan in, things would get bad, they would go to hell. Then again, if he didn't, if he shut him out now, well, Declan had a better read on him than most people did, he knew things about Dwayne, things that no one else had bothered to even think about. Declan showed signs of caring about him, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't hurt Dwayne.

"Dwayne?" He heard a knock on the door, followed by his sister's voice.

"Yeah, come in." He sighed, still sitting up in bed.

"You're awake, that's good." Olive smiled, hopping up onto the bed and sitting next to him. "Did people like your costume?"

"Yeah." He nodded, smiling at her. In truth, only Declan had commented, but that was all that mattered, right? "They did, said I looked good."

"Well you did." Olive grinned.

"It was a good costume," Dwayne agreed. "Thank you."

"So who's your new friend?" Olive asked.

"What do you mean?" Dwayne tilted his head to the side.

"The cowboy that brought you home last night." Olive giggled. "I was supposed to be asleep but I stayed up and I saw him walk you to the door from the window. He looked nice."

"Oh." Dwayne bit his lip. "He wasn't a cowboy, he was Indiana Jones, he's a character from a movie series." Dwayne shrugged. "And that guy's name was Declan, he lives in the area, so we walked home together."

"Mom said that it's strange," Olive stated.

"What?"

"Mom said that it's strange, she says that you don't have friends, she said you didn't like other people."

"Well I like you, don't I?" Dwayne teased.

"I mean aside from me." Olive rolled her eyes.

"You're too good at that," Dwayne commented.

"At what?"

"Eye rolling." Dwayne smiled, reaching out and ruffled his sister's hair. "And mom's wrong, I don't hate everyone, I just only like really special people."

"Special people like Declan?" Olive asked. Dwayne paused, biting his lip as he thought about it. Yes, Declan was special. He was someone like Dwayne had never known and now that he was in Dwayne's life, it was strange.

"Yeah." Dwayne nodded. "People like Declan," he said slowly. "Oh, and of course people like you." He grinned, lunging forwards, ticking Olive.

"STOP! STOP!" Olive shrieked as she laughed and writhed around. "MOM! HELP!"

"Dwayne, what – oh." Sheryl smiled as she walked into the room. She put her hands on her hips, though her smile didn't fade. She hadn't seen Dwayne act like this in awhile, and it was oddly comforting to her. "Stop tickling your sister."

"She started it," Dwayne stated, letting go of Olive.

"Did not." Olive stuck her tongue out at Dwayne, who just smiled at her.

"You two." Sheryl rolled her eyes, heading back into the hallway.

"Well now I know where you get your eye rolling from." Dwayne reached out, shoving Olive gently off the bed. "Out, I gotta get dressed."

"Okay." Olive smiled, heading for the door. "Are you gonna see your friend today?"

"I don't know." Dwayne bit his lip, frowning slightly as he realized that he didn't have Declan's number or address. He had no way of getting in touch with the boy, hell, he didn't even know his last name. He sighed, grabbing a change of clothes and a towel as he headed for the bathroom.

He had to think about this whole situation some more, and as the warm water beat down on his chest, he tried to decipher what was going on. Letting Declan in meant making a friend, and having a friend was a good thing, but having a friend also meant talking about himself, talking about things that he really didn't want to talk about, saying things he didn't want to say. Dwayne knew that he wasn't normal, that he wasn't like other people. He was fucked up in ways that most people didn't understand, and he didn't know how to be a friend. What if he messed up? What if he hurt Declan?

As that realization hit, Dwayne began to worry about which was more likely, him hurting Declan or Declan hurting him. If he let Declan in, they both had the power to hurt each other, and wouldn't it be easier to just go it alone? To not have to deal with that kind of thing? For a moment, he resolved to push Declan away, to shut him out, but only seconds later, Olive's words echoed in his mind. Declan _was_ special. Declan had seen Dwayne when no one else cared enough to look, he had taken notice of not only how weird Dwayne was, but who he was as a person, and no one else had done that for him. He remembered the kisses, the way he had felt right before the first kiss, the strong urge he had to make a move and the way he panicked the moment he felt Declan kissing him back. The second kiss had been different, longer, better, more passionate, but the kiss that really stuck with Dwayne was the soft one to the cheek that he had given Declan, the way that Declan had taken his hand.

He stepped out of the showering, toweling himself dry and pulling on his clothes, his mind still going over the pros and cons of letting someone into his life. He sighed, leaning against the bathroom wall. This wasn't just someone, this was someone who made him feel important, someone who made him feel good. This was someone that he actually _wanted _to be around. Maybe letting this boy in wouldn't be so bad after all, maybe it would be what he needed. Maybe Dwayne needed Declan to help him figure out who he was, what was going on, and maybe, just maybe, Dwayne was ready to fall for someone.

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_**A/N Sorry that it took me so long to get back to this...I don't know how long it'll be before I hit it up again, but I felt like working on it, so here we go! Let me know what you think of Dwayne and Declan!**_


	6. Chapter 6

Dwayne was sitting in his room working on his homework when the doorbell rang. It was never for him, so he didn't let it bother him, and he went back to focusing on his English paper. However, only a few seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Dwayne called, assuming it was Olive.

"Hey, someone's here to see you." Sheryl smiled, pushing the door open to reveal Declan standing there.

"Oh, hey." Dwayne gulped, closing his copy of _Hamlet_ and standing up. "Um…I didn't know you were coming over."

"Thought I'd surprise you, is that okay?" Declan asked.

"Um, yeah, sure." Dwayne nodded.

"Okay, well I'm gonna leave you two." Sheryl left, closing the door behind her, and Dwayne went back to sitting on the bed, though his English paper was already forgotten. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to Declan, he had not been expecting the boy to show up here, and he felt nervous. He wasn't used to having people around who weren't his family, and even then, he did his best to give them as wide a berth as possible.

"So, what are you up to?" Declan asked, taking a seat in Dwayne's desk chair.

"Just doing the _Hamlet_ paper." He shrugged.

"Oh yeah?" Declan tilted his head to the side. "What's your topic?"

"I'm writing about how I believe that pretending to be insane actually drove Hamlet to madness." Dwayne shrugged.

"Oh, so you think if he had never pretended to go crazy, he wouldn't have gone crazy?"

"I guess it's possible." Dwayne shrugged. "But I'm arguing against it, you know…going through the motions. The paper will get a good grade because it's different, that's how the teachers work…they want to see that you read the text and that you thought about it in a way that isn't cliché."

"Dwayne, I don't think you have to worry about being a cliché." Declan laughed, leaning back in the chair.

"What does that mean?" Dwayne asked.

"I don't think that there's anything about you that's even close to being a cliché."

"Oh." Dwayne shrugged. "Well…what's your paper on?"

"I don't know, I haven't started yet…it's not due for over a week." Declan shrugged.

"I know. I guess I like to get a head start on things." He looked down, feeling a little foolish. Part of the reason why he always did his homework ahead of time was because he didn't have anything else to do. His plans of being a pilot had been crushed, so his workout routine, while still active sometimes, didn't seem as important, and he didn't have a new goal. He was going through the motions, but the thing that he had spent the past few years working for was gone.

"You're definitely not a cliché." Declan smiled. "No high school kid acts like you do."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Dwayne bit his lip, looking down.

"No, no." He shook his head. "Don't be sorry, you're different, that's not a bad thing." Declan shrugged. "I like it, actually."

"Really?" Dwayne tilted his head to the side. "Most people around here push away anything that's different."

"Or they think that you're pushing them away by being different," Declan countered.

"Are we really going to get into why people hate me again?" Dwayne asked, his voice started to rise. "Is that why you came here?"

"No, no, relax." Declan smiled, getting up and moving to sit next to Dwayne. "Calm down, you get worked up way too easily." He rubbed Dwayne's back gently. "I came here because I had a question for you."

"Okay." Dwayne nodded. "Shoot."

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date with me tonight."

"W-what?" Dwayne's eyes widened as he looked up at Declan. He had really not been expecting that. They were just starting to get to know each other, a date was not what he had had in mind as the next step of their friendship, and he couldn't imagine that it was what Declan had had in mind, or at least he wouldn't have guessed it.

"A date," Declan stated. "You know, two people who like each other go out, maybe get something to eat, maybe go to a movie, get to know each other a little better, spend some alone time together…asker pays."

"I know what a date is," Dwayne whispered. "I just…I don't…I wasn't, I'm not…"

"You've never been on a date before?" Declan asked.

"Well no, but that's not the point."

"Then what is?" Declan asked, a smile on his face as he tilted his head to the side. "I know that you like me, Dwayne, you can't deny that – you kissed me last night, or don't you remember? I believe it was twice on the lips and once on the cheek? That's usually a pretty fair indicator that you like someone."

"I know, I just…I wasn't expecting this." Dwayne bit his lip. "I'm not sure what to do."

"Well you could say yes," Declan led, reaching out and taking Dwayne's hand. "Going on a date, it's not the end of the world. It's a commitment, it's not saying that you're crazy, passionately in love with someone, it's just saying that you like them enough to take them out for a bit of a test drive." He shrugged. "It can be casual, we can just go grab something to eat and talk, okay? Get to know each other better."

"You want to get to me better?" Dwayne asked.

"We've been over this." Declan rolled his eyes. "Dwayne, you fascinate me, you're different from everyone else, I like different, and I want to get to know who you really are." He bit his lip. "I know that you keep a lot back, and I want to get to know the person that you try to keep everyone from meeting."

"Why would you want to get to know that person?" Dwayne asked. "Trust me, he's not worth knowing."

"He isn't?" Declan tipped his head to the side, a playful smile still gracing his lips.

"No." Dwayne shook his head, looking down at the floor and away from Declan. "He's not. There's nothing remarkable or interesting about him, he's lacking substance and he's really just, well like I said…he's not worth knowing."

"Hmm." Declan tapped his chin. "Well why don't you let me be the judge of that, okay? After all, we are our own worst critic."

"I don't know…" Dwayne bit his lip. Hadn't he decided to let Declan in? Hadn't he decided that it was worth giving it a shot just so that he could feel the way that he did when Declan was around him? He wanted to get closer to this boy, but he was now afraid that when Declan got closer to him, he wouldn't like the Dwayne that he found.

"What's the worst that could happen, really?" Declan asked. "We realize we're not compatible in that way, we stay friends and you get a free meal."

"Free meal?" Dwayne furrowed his eyebrows.

"Remember what I said?" Declan shoved Dwayne playfully. "The asker pays."

"Oh." Dwayne took a deep breath before nodding. "Okay, we can give it a shot."

"Great." Declan smiled. "I'll be back to pick you up at 8."

"You don't just want to meet somewhere?" Dwayne asked.

"No." Declan shook his head. "Declan Forrester doesn't do things that way. If we're going on a date, we're doing it right."

"Aren't we already kind of messing up by both being male?" Dwayne asked.

"Oh wake up and smell the coffee, Iverson." Declan smiled as he stood up, heading for the door. "It's the 21st century. I'll see you at 8." With that, he left Dwayne's room, leaving the other boy in shock and awe. This was definitely nothing he had ever experienced, and he wasn't sure how to take it.

* * *

**_A/N Alright, so I'm a little curious right now. I know that some of guys like Declan and some of you guys really don't, so I'm wondering how you guys feel about him and how you feel about him and Dwayne - I'd love some feedback - also, if you have any ideas, I'm open to suggestions, this story isn't as mapped out as some of my other ones have been in the past._**


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